Written Answers Monday 12 September 2005

Scottish Executive

Alzheimer's Disease

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with NHS boards and other interested parties with regard to the full range of drugs treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

Mr Andy Kerr: The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) provides advice to NHS Boards and their Area Drug and Therapeutics Committees across Scotland about the introduction and use of new medicines. This includes drugs available for Alzheimer’s disease.

Alzheimer's Disease

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it made a submission to the National Institute of Clinical Excellence review concerning the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and, if so, whether it will publish its submission.

Mr Andy Kerr: NHS Quality Improvement Scotland has, ensured that advice from Scottish experts is available to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). Generally these opinions are made available on the NICE website once the final appraisal document is published.

Alzheimer's Disease

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the draft recommendations from the National Institute of Clinical Excellence in respect of the use of drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease will be adopted in Scotland.

Mr Andy Kerr: The draft recommendations from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) are preliminary and may change. On 8 August 2005, NICE wrote to the manufacturers of these drugs asking for more detailed information from clinical trials.

  NHS Quality Improvement Scotland will consider any final recommendation from NICE and consider how it might apply to NHS Scotland.

Health

Mrs Margaret Ewing (Moray) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has had from interested parties concerning lymphoedema support networks and what action it has taken arising from such representations.

Mr Andy Kerr: Since June 2004 correspondence has been received from 15 MSPs and two members of the public about lymphoedema services.

  In April 2005, £6 billion was allocated to NHS boards for 2005-06. It is a matter for NHS boards to decide where this money is directed to meet the healthcare needs of their local populations. Each NHS board publishes a Local Health Plan annually that sets out the broad strategic direction for public health and health care services in their area.

  People suffering from lymphoedema also stand to benefit from the new, more systematic approach to the management of all long-term conditions that Community Health Partnerships (CHPs) will be encouraged to pursue. In particular, CHPs will be able to undertake an assessment of the needs of those with lymphoedema as well as developing care pathways for them.

NHS 24

Mr Stewart Maxwell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the nurses who staff NHS 24 have access to details of the services available at each hospital in order that patients can be directed, not to their nearest hospital, but to the nearest hospital that has services to treat the condition which the nurse suspects the patient to be suffering from.

Mr Andy Kerr: NHS 24 offers a triage and consultation service to patients. Nurse advisers come to NHS 24 with a wide range of nursing experience, gained over a substantial period of time. The nurse adviser asks a series of questions with the support of a clinical evidence based support tool. This structured approach allows the nurse adviser to gain relevant information so that they can ascertain the urgency of a patient’s symptoms and determine the most appropriate level of care.

  The nurse advisers have access to information about hospital services that helps them decide which location is the most appropriate for the patient. For example, for accident and emergency departments, minor injury units and maternity units, this information includes whether the hospital provides treatment for eye injuries, fracture management, medical emergencies, paediatrics, stabilisation of serious conditions, trauma emergencies and x-ray facilities, early pregnancy or high risk pregnancy.

NHS 24

Mr Stewart Maxwell (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients in each NHS board area have been referred by NHS 24 to a hospital and have subsequently been referred on to another hospital due to the first hospital to which they were referred not having the facilities to treat their complaint.

Mr Andy Kerr: This information is not held centrally.

NHS Funding

Brian Adam (Aberdeen North) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much each NHS board has spent on non-recurring expenditure in order to balance its budget in each of the last three financial years.

Mr Andy Kerr: This information is not presently held centrally by the Executive. However, the Executive have revised and redesigned the format of the current financial returns which are submitted to the department to facilitate the gathering of such information.

NHS Funding

Brian Adam (Aberdeen North) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much each NHS board has spent from capital in order to balance its budget in each of the last three financial years.

Mr Andy Kerr: The following boards transferred an element of their capital allocation as follows:

  

NHS Board
2002-03
(£ Million)
2003-04
(£ Million)
2004-05
(£ Million)


Argyll and Clyde
10.400
3.000
13.473


Ayrshire and Arran
3.818
5.697
6.300


Borders
4.378
6.200
5.854


Dumfries and Galloway
1.974
4.441
2.947


Fife
1.704
2.393
4.325


Forth Valley
3.037
5.206
5.913


Grampian
10.158
19.023
10.170


Greater Glasgow
20.155
25.905
23.969


Highland
3.954
4.970
1.450


Lanarkshire
19.403
11.450
12.850


Lothian
46.827
23.305
38.155


Tayside
15.369
17.059
14.287


Orkney
0.850
1.309
0.900


Shetland
0.869
0.773
0.750


Western Isles
1.000
0.500
0.855


NHS National Services Scotland
0.835
0.950
0.980


Scottish Ambulance Service
1.561
0.311
0.600


State Hospital
1.250
2.500
2.500


Total
147.542
134.992
146.278



  The figures in the table represent total capital to revenue transfers. The majority of this relates to routine transfers in respect of refurbishment/maintenance projects, IM&T projects and other one-off funding arrangements such as PPP fees.

Renewable Energy

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of hydro-electricity generated at plants accredited under the Renewables Obligation (Scotland) scheme is supplied by stations which (a) have been generating for 10 years or more and (b) were commissioned after 1 April 2002.

Nicol Stephen: The requested information is not held centrally. Statistics on the output from Scottish hydro generation are collected by the UK Government’s Department of Trade and Industry and by the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) in respect of output eligible for Renewables Obligation Certificates. However, the information available is not disaggregated to the level of output from individual stations.

Renewable Energy

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of Scotland’s hydro-electricity generated at plants accredited under the Renewables Obligation (Scotland) scheme is generated by plants commissioned since the Executive announced its renewable energy target.

Nicol Stephen: The requested information is not held centrally. Statistics on the output from Scottish hydro generation are collected by the UK Government’s Department of Trade and Industry and by the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) in respect of output eligible for Renewables Obligation Certificates. However, the information available is not disaggregated to the level of output from individual stations.

Scottish Enterprise

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning will invite the Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise to acknowledge and reply to the letter of 18 July 2005 he received regarding the £16 million proposal for the "Spirit of Scotland" project.

Nicol Stephen: This is a matter for the Chief Executive of Scottish Enterprise, but I understand that he has replied to the letter in question.

Scottish Office

David McLetchie (Edinburgh Pentlands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide a like-for-like comparison of Scottish Office staff figures in each year from 1990 to 1999 with Scottish Executive/Scotland Office staff figures in each year from 1999 to 2005, taking into account changes in classification of jobs and transfers of functions.

Mr Tom McCabe: Like-for-like comparisons of Scottish Office staff figures with Scottish Executive/Scotland Office staff figures are not possible.